Human hair becomes dry and/or damaged due to the surrounding environment, styling, regular cleansing, drying, and/or coloring or otherwise chemically treating the hair.
A variety of approaches have been developed to condition the hair. A common method of providing conditioning benefit is through the use of hair care compositions containing conditioning agents such as cationic surfactants and polymers, high melting point fatty compounds, low melting point oils, silicone compounds, and mixtures thereof. Silicones are often used as a conditioning active for a number of hair care compositions. However, the rising costs, demand for better conditioning of damaged hair, and the petroleum-based nature of silicone has minimized its desirability as a conditioning active. Moreover, high levels of conventional silicones can often cause consumer-perceived tradeoffs in clean feel e.g. stickiness, coated feel.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a conditioning active which can provide conditioning benefits to hair which can replace, or be used in combination with silicone, or other conditioning active, to maximize the conditioning activity of a hair care composition. Additionally, there is a need to find a conditioning active which can deliver an improved conditioning benefit to damaged hair, which has previously been difficult to condition using traditional conditioning actives. There is also a need to find a conditioning active which can be derived from a natural and renewable resource. There are environmental concerns around the expanding use of silicones in personal care products and also increasing concerns in relation to their biodegradation. Furthermore, there is a need for producing conditioning actives via less energy intensive processes.
There has been an increase in the number of hair care products with ‘silicone free’ claims on the market. However, there remains a need for conditioning formulations with an improved sustainability profile in combination with conditioning benefits near-parity to traditional silicone conditioning formulations. More specifically there is a constant need for more sustainable conditioning formulations with excellent wet and dry conditioning efficacy across a range of hair types.